FORT COLLINS -- As the afternoon sun sank behind towering clouds of smoke in a premature sunset Wednesday, fresh firefighters preparing for their first night battling the High Park fire fueled up at a fire camp chow hall.

The new crews in clean green pants and T-shirts proclaiming their outfits' names and home states had arrived to bolster the army of wild-land firefighters called in to deal with Larimer County's largest wildfire on record.

Their number stands at 1,263, and for as long as they're needed, they will call a bustling tent city on the northwestern edge of Fort Collins home.

Mike Fosjord, right, of Lewistown, Mont., shares a table outside the chow tent with Salt Lake City residents Gene Hancock, center, and Myles Winn, left, on Wednesday as more night-shift firefighters line up behind them.
(
Craig Young
)

"Essentially, we set up a city," said Steve Segin, public information officer with the incident management team. The camp occupies a portion of Christman Field, an inactive airfield on the Colorado State University foothills campus at Overland Trail and Laporte Avenue.

That city features clusters of one- and two-man tents scattered around a large field; a chow hall tent with long outdoor tables; a large supply warehouse; a team that provides phone, Internet and other communications; a portable showers unit; rows of portable toilets; and a support staff of more than 150 that includes a security team.

On Wednesday, the national catering company was serving up a buffet line of burrito fixings, and the firefighters were heaping their plates high in anticipation of the night ahead.

The firefighters -- men and women, many young and many a bit weathered-looking -- serve 14-day shifts, 16 hours on and 8 hours off.

After a day or night on the fire lines, "they want to eat, they want to shower and they want to go to bed," said Brett Haberstick, a spokesman with the incident management team.

If they're still needed here after 14 days, they'll be put up in hotels for two days before going back to work, Segin explained. Otherwise, they go back home with their units, rest up for two days and are sent out again.

Hot Shot crews catchup on their sleep in tents on Wednesday at the High Park firefighter camp in Fort Collins.
(
Jenny Sparks
)

"They are just eager animals," said Rob Bozeman, a Boulder-based fire observer who spoke to the media at a briefing earlier in the day. "They like to get in and mix it up," he said.

"It's early in the season; they're up for it," he said.

Toward evening, two dirt- and soot-smudged firefighters returned to the camp with their Missoula National Helicopter crew. Tony Maillet, Chase Harrison and their crew had spent their second day on the fire in a variety of duties.

Their expertise is directing helicopter water drops, but they said they also do whatever is needed -- helping with burn-outs, cutting down hazardous trees and working on structure protection.

On Tuesday, they worked with a heavy helicopter to stop a fire that was running up a drainage toward a house on Tip Top Road off Rist Canyon Road, Maillet said.

"He did about 20 drops," Maillet said. "We ended up saving it."

The Missoula helitack crew had spent three or four days fighting the Lost Lake fires in south-central Utah, Maillet said, but they were pulled off to help with the higher-priority High Park blaze.

Although the wind created some active fire conditions, Maillet said he never felt threatened. "This is our job; we're professionals," the 17-year veteran said. "It's well thought out before we decide to engage."

Although he spends six to seven months a year fighting fires around the country, he said every fire is different.

High Park stands out because it is burning so close to Fort Collins, rather than in a remote forest. "It's in the public eye," he said, and he has felt the appreciation of residents.

He said a woman stopped him in the post office to thank him for his work. "It's very rewarding," Maillet said.